The green light

Construction projects always require forward planning and a wide consideration of variables; there is also the local authority to contend with. John Cahill reports on the new green points system for building projects

The Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), or at least the scoring from it, is now a statutory yardstick for government-funded construction, but it is creeping fast into the non-maintained sector. If you have not heard of it, let this article act as a clarion call to alert you.

Because it is a newly fashionable yardstick, local planning authorities have been picking up on it and, with singular ignorance of its true meaning and execution, are beginning to foist it onto all projects to do with education, regardless of the suitability of the methodology.

What’s the score?
All aspects of building design and construction are given a score. The higher the score, the higher the rating you will achieve under BREEAM. For example, if you put in bicycle racks, you will get a point. If you demand that the contractor recycles his waste products in a certain way, you will get more points. If you demand that every single child walks to school and no cars are allowed on the campus, you will be positively drowned in points.

The aim is to reach a score which says that your building is “excellent”, but this is difficult to achieve, unless yours is a brand-new school on a greenfield site and which has been designed from first principles and integrates the latest low carbon technology.

Be wary
What you have to be aware of, however, is that to get these scores, you need to start collecting green points right from the outset of the project. That means that if you were not aware of BREEAM and have not been alive to the possibility of its becoming a requirement, then you could get into serious trouble. Your local planning authority, most of whom have no idea how the system works, may suddenly drop a planning condition at the approval stage, requiring you to get a “very excellent” score. If you have not been aware of this possibility, you will not have had a chance to lay the groundwork and it will be too late to even consider getting a BREEAM rating.

In other words, for any serious project, it is now essential that you carry out a pre-assessment of BREEAM requirements right at the start. This, as is inevitable, means hiring yet another consultant in the shape of a BREEAM assessor, which will cost you something in the order of £2,000 plus VAT and the whole package for a significant building could be as much as £10,000 or more.

The Building Research Establishment (BRE) has a list of recognised consultants (see below). Do not try to do it yourself or go on a teach-yourself course, employ someone who really understands the demands of BREEAM and also make sure that there is an architect or project manager who has experience of the assessor before engaging them.

Up to you
This is merely a sketch of what is actually a complicated process, but if you are aware of the issue and you go to the trouble of meeting a couple of assessors at the early stages of the procurement process (and I mean right at the outset) or, if you have a strong constitution, you could go on a course at the BRE itself – they are excellent and it will only take up half a day of your time – then you will be grateful that you did not fall into the trap of being caught out by a local authority that did not know quite what it was doing.

BRE is based at Bucknalls Lane, Watford, Hertfordshire WD25 9XX and can be contacted on 01923 664000.

John Cahill is managing director of Barnsley Hewett and Mallinson. John can be contacted on jc@bhmarchitects.com

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